Mac.

BEST write when it’s raw, right? It’s all about traffic and publicity, right? It isn’t. If you don’t love what you’re doing, why are you doing it?

A lot of questions to introduce a body of text where the content hasn’t been so much as hinted at. Mac Miller died on the 7th of September, 2018; this is a man who influenced streetwear enthusiasts worldwide, this is a man who did everything from the heart.

Picture this.

You’re playing Halo 3, it’s a staple for any childhood memory. It’s a Saturday morning and you’ve got your shin-pads and socks on ready for Mum to take you to football. You’re not in the mood as you were up all night with your friends, but Mum loves taking you. So, you finish putting on your local’s kit and hop in the back seat, accompanied by boots and a water bottle in the footwell.

Headphones on, ACDC isn’t to your taste – so that 5mb memory on your Motorola Razr has been snapped up by all 3 of your favourite songs. All Mac Miller. All Blue Slide Park. All slightly too rude for your Mum to approve of, but just rude enough to help your learn your way around the wonders of the English vocabulary. Like Green Day when American Idiot released. Like that, with less punk.

Obviously, once you get to the ground the headphones come off, boots are on and music takes a step back. Once the final whistle blows, vice versa. Play, play, play, repeat. Our confidence is high at this age, so everyone loved to recite their favourite lyrics – whether it was over Xbox Live or on the journey home. Just don’t say the naughty words, you know the rules; “My name Mac Miller, who-ooo are you?”.

An album that never got old. Blue Slide Park hold so many memories. Both positive and negative, many that will never make their way onto any public platform and will remain as no more than a personal thought.

Take a step back into the terrible teenage years.

Parties are popping off every weekend all over the city; fields, houses, barns and even pools. There’s a party, you’re going. At this age you’re discovering alcohol and pushing the limits as to what your body can take, you’re acting as any teenage would do the moment a relatively heavy bass-line drops.

The end of every party can end either one of two ways:

Someone pulls out the guitar and Wonderwall wakes up the entire street.

An assortment of happy, lighthearted songs come on that everyone will know the words to.

Donald Trump, Best Day Ever, Get Up. Don’t argue the facts – whether you were coming down, throwing up or just there to have a good time, these came on and you sang your heart out.

To keep this shorter than it needs to be, leap into 2018. It’s your next challenge – realistically the most difficult period of time since Blue Slide, you’re having to take that leap of faith with the hope that a comfortable job will cushion your fall in the big wide world.

Swimming hits streaming sites, 3rd of August. Many have said this was album of the year, many more may say it was Album of Mac’s lifetime.

An album entirely built on heartbreak, development and natural progression within one’s lifetime. Faces spoke about his drug problems, G0:0D AM about self discovery, and Movies with the Lights off touched on his low points – similarly to The Divine Feminine. Swimming was a combination of all four. If Mac can do it, you can do it.

At no point did he ever seem like a celebrity, or even much more than a kid at the end of your street.

Mac could help everyone but himself. His lyrics not only inspired youthful generations to succeed, but never failed to crack a smile upon the lips of anyone who’d be fortunate enough to hear his music. One of very few who made music for himself until the day he died, one of very few who made music for the sheer joy it gave him.